In The Know #26: Anniversary Edition 🎉
Hi friends,
It’s issue #26, which means it’s been exactly one year since starting this newsletter! I just wanted to thank you following me on this journey, I simply wouldn’t be here without your support.
In honor of this anniversary, I have a small request of you as a reader. Growing this mailing list is what gives me fuel to keep it going, and I would appreciate if you could help me by sharing it to social media, or forwarding it to two friends you think might enjoy it. Sharing and subscribe buttons below 👇.
As for this week’s edition, I’ve shared a blog post about a topic I’ve been thinking about for far too long and finally managed to get the words down on paper/keyboard — the tension between ambition and enjoyment, and why it may be a false dichotomy. I’ve also included links to a surprisingly great book by former NBA all-star Chris Bosh, a list of cognitive biases we are all probably guilty of more than we’d like to admit, and a parable about the importance of the stories we tell ourselves.
I hope you’re having a great summer so far, and I look forward to many more years and posts to come!
Jamie
Thought From Me — Ambition vs. Enjoyment: A False Dichotomy? (via Medium). Success in any pursuit seems to be about finding the right balance between competing dichotomies. Chaos and order; leading and following; planning and improvising; intensity and recovery, just to name a few.
The dichotomy that I find the most challenging in my own life is the balance between ambition and enjoyment — the urge to learn, improve, and strive to be my best and create a better future, with the desire to enjoy the present moment, and be satisfied with what I have already achieved.
The funny thing is that even though it feels like these two ideals are at odds with one another, I know it is a false dichotomy. It is eminently possible to enjoy the process of working towards a big and meaningful goal that will positively affect the future. In fact, I believe that alone is the real key to happiness.
But that doesn’t mean it feels like they are aligned. In my experience, the default is for ambition and enjoyment to feel like opposing forces because the only times I stop and reflect are when things are difficult or not working at all…
To continue reading, check out the full post on Medium.
Great Book About Leadership and Philosophy — Letters to a Young Athlete, by Chris Bosh. As its title suggests, this book is a collection of letters written to the young athletes of the future. But it’s not just about sports — the letters are about leadership, ego, communication, and self care, amongst other important topics that apply to all our lives. I’m always surprised when a book by a pro athlete is actually thoughtful and deep, and this one definitely raises the bar.
(More) Great Advice I Keep Coming Back To — 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice, by Kevin Kelly. In one of my first newsletters I shared the previous version of Kevin Kelly's birthday advice (68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice), and I recently came across a new list so I thought I’d share it again a year later. Having just had a birthday myself, a lot of this really resonated. My favorite: "Something does not need to be perfect to be wonderful. Especially weddings."
Interesting Twitter Thread About Ways Our Thinking is Consistently Flawed — Cognitive Biases, by Sahil Bloom. This thread outlines 20 of the cognitive biases we employ on a regular basis. Even though I had heard of them all before, it was insightful to read through all of them at once and realize how many I fall victim to on a regular basis. The only way to notice is to know what they are in the first place, so I hope this helps you notice where you may be biased in your own thinking too.
Parable About the Power of the Stories We Tell Ourselves — The Eagle and The Chicken, by Anthony de Mello (via James Clear's 3-2-1 Newsletter).
"A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chickens and grew up with them.
All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.
Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.
The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked. "That's the eagle, the king of the birds," said his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we're chickens."
So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was."
Closing Quote — “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” ~Wayne Gretzky